China’s hottest “styles” of 2012

The Six O’Clock This Morning (今晨六点) from Shandong province today has a special feature rounding up the newspaper’s selection of the hottest “styles” of 2012, using an English word that has been popularized in China this year because of the global pop song hit ‘Gangnam Style’. Intending to capture some of the humor and pedantic banality of our social media-obsessed world, the special round-up of 2012 is divided into six categories:

“Funny (幽默) Style”

“Strong (实力) Style”

“Emotional (感情) Style”

“Surprising (惊诧) Style”

“Lateral Thinking (偏锋) Style”, and

“Controversial (争论) Style”

To put the whole section in its proper context, the newspaper prefaces it with the following quip:

In this year of 2012 sports and entertainment stars performed all kinds of remarkable deeds; they accomplished acts of great strength; they made some unconventional winning gambits (剑走偏锋); they got a lot of attention by means of marriage and divorce; and they swaggered around endlessly leaving you dazed and confused. No matter what kind of Style, these were all hot in 2012. They fully deserve the right to be called hot, and yet we are still mystified at why they became hot.

So without further ado, here’s the newspaper’s slightly dubious round-up of the hottest “styles” of 2012:

If you enter the words “Du Fu is very busy” (杜甫杜甫很忙) in any search engine, you’ll find countless spoof images of the dignified and contemplative visage of the 8th century Chinese poet Du Fu. This spoof (恶搞) of Du Fu is the latest in a series of such spoofs of ancient Chinese literati, following other popular ones such as “Li Bai (李白, ancient painter) is not convinced” (李白不服气了). Go ahead, Google them.

3. Yuan Fang, what do you think? (远芳,你怎么看?)

This phrase is probably the most famous one to emanate from Chinese television in 2012. From the television series Legendary Detective Di Renjie (神探狄仁杰), Li Yuan Fang is Di’s assistant and is often asked this question by the master sleuth. The phrase became very popular on the Chinese Internet and even in general conversation as a question that can be used for any kind of situation. Yuan Fang’s response to the question became almost just as popular, as he was prone to answer, “I think there’s something fishy here” (我觉得此事有蹊跷).

4. Feng Zhe (冯喆) does cross-talk

The Chinese Olympic athlete Feng Zhe (冯喆) performed his own cross-talk comedy routine to ridicule his coaches and illustrate his experiences at the London Olympics, winning him many new followers online.

Chinese badminton player Lin Dan (林丹) successfully defended his Olympic gold medal at the London Olympics and this year also married his girlfriend of eight years, Xie Xingfang (谢杏芳), in a moving ceremony.

This happy story is contrasted with the relationship troubles that Chinese film director Zhang Yimou (张艺谋) experienced in 2012.

The Olympic diver Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) finally married husband Hou Qigang (霍启刚) in 2012 after a long relationship (and many rumors).

This is contrasted with the melodrama surrounding former Olympic badminton champion and current head coach of the Chinese women’s badminton team, Zhang Ning (张宁). Ning gave birth to a girl in December and caused an uproar when the identity of the father seemed to be in doubt and when people pointed out online that she attended the London Olympics while being pregnant.

4.The acrimonious divorce of Dong Jie (董洁) and Pan Yueming (潘粤明)

In October news broke on Weibo that the fairytale wedding of the two actors was over.

In November, the mascot of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics was revealed as the strange apparition called Lele (砳砳). Derided as a multi-colored frog, Lele did not go down well online.

2. The divisive figure of Italian footballer Mario Balotelli

Contrasting opinions on the wild child of European football.

3. The strange sounds of Wu Mochou (吴莫愁)

This summer, a girl wearing weird clothes and strange make-up made it into the final round of the singing game show “The Voice of China” (中国好声音). With her exaggerated performance, Wu Mochou (吴莫愁) caused quite a stir, with some viewers complaining that the sound of Wu’s voice made little children cry.

The singing game show “The Voice of China” was the hottest show on Chinese television this year, according to the Six O’Clock This Morning. The newspaper describes certain novel aspects of the show that made it worthy of inclusion on this list.

2. Cao Qi (曹琦) selected for film role

Young actress originally selected by Six O’Clock This Morning was in 2012 appointed to an important film role (this seems like plug by the newspaper for itself)

3. Zhou Lulu (周璐璐), most notable Chinese athlete at London Olympics

Of all the Chinese female athletes at the London Olympics, Zhou Lulu (周璐璐) stood out, literally. She wore clothing that was five times larger than normal, and her weight (130 kg) was far in excess of all the other female athletes as well. Yet Zhou Lulu not only won a gold medal at the Olympics, she also broke her own world record.

4. “China on the Tip of the Tongue” (舌尖上的中国)

Cooking show broadcast on CCTV in May that garnered rave reviews from the public.